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J,2>iS 



DATE OF SETTLEMENT. 
To the Editor of the Barbados Advocate. 

Sir.— I 

1. Id the &fail Edition of the 
Advocate, of 6th inat., you have publish- 
ed a statement by Mr. G P. Clarke, in 
which the date of the actual settlement 
of Barbados is correctly given^s having 
been made in February 1626, (/Z(2 style, 
or Vo'nffew style. 

2. In support of Mr. Clarke's view 
numerous additional authorities might 
be quoted. Some are herewith given. 

3. Mr. Clarke has quoted Captain 
Henry Powell, who commanded the 
William and John, which carried out the 
first lot of colonists, as having on various 
occasions sworn that his voyage was 
made in 1626 (old style). Powell's state- 
ment is supported by the heirs of Sir 
William Courteen, by whom the William 
and John was set out. In folio 60S of 



that by the English, iWho have all along 
kept continual;^ and i undisturbed pos- 
session." I 

Chronological Observations of Amer- 
ioa, from the year of the World to the 
year of Christ 1673, (London, 1674). 

1627" A colony of English planted 
upon the Island of Barbados which in a 
short time increased to 20,000, besides 
negroes, 

Ogilby's America, London, 1671. In 
this book it is stated that the island was 
planted by the English; Anno 1627, 
(Section XXIII, p. 377.) 

America Painted to the Life (by Ferdi- 
nando Gorges) London, 1659 (p. 4.) 

"On the East side of St. Jean, 
"Porto Rico, ly^ the Islands called 
" Canibales or Caribs, which are also 
•' severally named by the above men- 
tioned Author, the last of which 
towards the East called Barbados, or 
" Barbudos, was possessed by a Colony 



the Egerton Af./S.iS.i/preserved in the i «• ot Englishmen, in the year 1627 
British Museum, is a document entitled: 
A true state of the case between the 
Heirs and Assigns of Sir William 
Courten. Knight. Deceased, and the 
late Earl of Carlisle, and Planters in the 
Island of Barbadoes, annexed to the 
Petition of William. Courten, Esquire, 
and others, exhibited in Parliament. 
In this paper submitted to Parlia- 
ment, it is stated that one of Cour- 
ten's privateers had in 1625, "in 
the beginning of the Reign of 
Charles the Firsc," discovered Barba- 
dos, which isdescribed as being then " an 
island not inhabited by any nation, 
ot a good soil, and very fit for a planta- 
tion." The Petitioners proceed to say 
that Sir William Courten thereupon set 
forth the William and John, by whose 
company possepsioo was taken of Barba- 
dos *• in the Month of February 1626," 
(O.S.) The Pepition mentions further 
that captain <^ohn (PHenry) Powell " in 
the year 1627 fetched several Indians 
from the M&in Land, with divers 
soit^i of sewds and roots, and agreed 
with the Indians to instruct the 
English in planting cotton, tobacco, 
indigo, etc." And it was in the very 
same year tl>e Hrot settlement was 
made at Barbados, that Captain 
Powell went ou to the Main and fetched 
the Indians stnd seeds and plant>>, 
which were so vitally necessary to the 
continuance of the Colony, This 
statement confirms 
of the arrival of the 



being 1628, Vld Style, and 1627, Nexv 
Style. 

4. The foundations upon which those 
rely who hold to the year 1625, as that 
of the First Settlement, are mainly :— 

a. 1625, is given as the year of settle- 
ment in the Mem,oirS of the First Settle- 
ment of the Island of Barbados, etc. , 



! 6. The Barbados A.ct of 22nd March 
{ 1667. refers to " any CDmmission " issued 
by King James. Thece is no such com- 
I mission on record, li the first commis- 
j sion is3ued to Sir Tlomas Warner, by 
Charles I for the Gjvernment of St, 
Kitts. Nevis, Montstrrat, and Barba- 
dos, there is no refermce to any earlier 
Commission. It is dited the 13th Sep- 
tember, 1625. In it, is the statement 
that Warner " madt entrie into the 
"said Islandea for ant on the bebalfe of 
' our deare Father ', (Jimes I.) Sir Thomas 
I Warner's son, Colond Philip Warner, 
i has left it on record tkat his father did 
I nob make a settle meit at Baibados on 
i account of the scarcity of water there. 
It should be observed that this reference 
in the Act of 1667 is o any "Commis- 
sion " of Jwmes I, nc to any Law of 
the time of James I. "-^ support for 
the theory of the ) '^'^ is Jbo be 

found in Acts and " '^"' 

das, London, 1854 
New Catalogue, to! ^ 

7 As regards the ^viog been 

called James Town, tho ^^se is very clear. 
The place was not called James Town by 
the first settlers. It wrts long after- 
wards called St. James's Town as being 
the Town of the parish of St. Janaes, 
and came afterwards to be called 
James Town, for short. Writing on the 
.o v.w..,x. V, xo.o 3l8t May, 1670 to Ogilby, whose work on 
the fftcr, of the year 1 America has already been quoted irom„ 
William and John . Colonel Robert Rich, who had jived 



eleven years in Batbados said : The 
third Road and Town is iMely call- 
ed St. James'^, formerly The Hall (sic). 
Oldmixon, (Vol. II. p. 100, London 
1741) pays of the Hole : " It has a 
" regular and handsome Church dedi- 
" cated to St. James from whence it is 
" sometimes called James Town.' 
8. In Southey's West Indian Chronology 



b The Act of the Legislature of Bar- 1 Vol. I, pp. 257, 258), under the year 1625. it 



bados of 22Qd March, 1667, appointing 
commissioners to compile the statutes 
that were then in force, and in which it 
was declared that all statutes made by 
virtue of any Commission from King 
James or Charles I, or from his then 
present Majesty (Charles II,) and which 
stood unrepealed were to be in full force. 

c. An erroneous statement that the 
first settlers gave the name of James- 
town to the Bole. 

5. As regaids the statement of date 
given in the Mem,oiie£of the First Settle- 
ment, published only in 1742, ic should be 
noted that fin pabHcations of earlier 
date the corract year. 1627, »9 Riven. The 
following arej instances :— 

Speed's ThLtre of the Empire of Great 
Britain, Lon(ion, 1876. It is herein said 
(p 48) " Th^ first Colony planted in 
this island was in the year 1627. and 



is erroneously stated that the Revo. Ni- 
cholas Le^ton in chat year, removed to 
Tobago, disliking the profligate manners 
of Ime inhabitants of Barbados. The 
authority given tor this statement is 
Palmpa^edition of Dr. Calamy's Non- 
comformisfs Memorial Vol. I p. 371. 
A reference to the authority shows that 
there has been an error in the quotation. 
9. The late Mr. Seale Yearwood— 
Nomen venerabiletmis said to have never 
forgiven my indiscretion in putting 
back the date of the settlemenc of 
Barbados by two years. Requiescat. 

Yours truly, 

N. DARNELL DAVIS. 

Georgetown. British Guiana. 
26th November 1906. 



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